John Frederick Paxton
John Frederick Paxton was a Human who served as chief administrator of the Orpheus Mining Colony on Luna. Paxton also led the xenophobic movement Terra Prime, a radical faction which advocated that all non-Humans be expelled from Earth, as well as the entire Sol system. Paxton was a follower of Colonel Green, whose theories on the purity of the Human race formed the basis for Terra Prime's ideology. Ironically, Paxton's own health benefited from alien technology: he used Rigelian gene therapy because he suffered from Taggart's Syndrome. Nonetheless, Paxton found himself driven to follow the ideals laid down by Colonel Green. To that end, he ordered the creation of a binary clone, a Human-Vulcan hybrid, using DNA from Commanders Charles Tucker III and T'Pol, two crewmembers of the Starfleet vessel ''Enterprise''. Paxton used the resulting infant to justify his actions, presenting the child to Earth as "proof" that an alliance between different species would result in the pollution of the Human genome and the eventual extinction of Humankind as a result of generations of cross-breeding. Despite Paxton's claim that Terra Prime was "dedicated to the protection of life in all its diversity", he was not beyond murdering people who stood in his way, even those of his own species. When one of his medical technicians, Susan Khouri, opted out of Terra Prime to alert Starfleet of his intentions, Paxton had her killed. Although Khouri ultimately died from a phase pistol wound, she managed to deliver a sample of the cloned baby's hair to T'Pol before she died. Paxton later sent his personal assistant, Daniel Greaves, to kill Mercer, another medical technician whom Paxton felt was becoming too attached to the baby. When Tucker and T'Pol arrived on the Orpheus Mining Colony to investigate, Paxton captured the two officers. He then used the mining colony itself (which was a fully functional warp capable spacecraft) to take over the verteron array, a comet directional facility on Mars. Paxton planned to use the array to threaten Earth into giving into his demands: either all aliens leave the Sol system immediately, or Paxton would use the array to destroy Starfleet Command, whom he saw as responsible for Humanity's attempts to form an interstellar alliance. With the verteron array under his control and with an army of loyal followers like Josiah at his side, Paxton forced Tucker to work on refining the array's targeting system. T'Pol ultimately discovered Paxton's illness and attempted to use it as leverage to obtain medical care for Elizabeth, who had acquired a fever as well as a heightened white blood cell count. Paxton, however, scoffed at her demands, citing that his loyal followers would never believe the word of an alien over his own. Captain Jonathan Archer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Dr. Phlox, and Ensign Travis Mayweather later succeeded in reaching the surface of Mars by bypassing the sensory grid behind a comet. Once they arrived at the facility, they attempted to stop Paxton before he fired the array at Starfleet Command. Paxton began to taunt Captain Archer, claiming that his father, Henry Archer, was a pet human of the Vulcans. Archer, not provoked by Paxton's insults, tried shutting down the array. Paxton went on talking about his own father's achievements of turning a moon from a colony to an independent world. During a firefight, Paxton's room decompressed; however, Paxton himself was not affected due to his experience of being in areas of low oxygen. He continued his attempts to fire on Earth. However, because of Tucker, the array misfired into San Francisco Bay, saving Starfleet Command. Paxton was eventually taken into custody. However, his actions had lasting consequences. T'Pol and Tucker lost their child because of a flaw in Paxton's scientists' genetic techniques with Tucker's and T'Pol's DNA. And, in a way, Paxton's name probably would be significant, as his actions led to a better understanding of Humankind's fear of the unknown. This allowed the attempted coalition to revive and eventually to become the United Federation of Planets. ( ) Background information Paxton was played by Peter Weller. Paxton’s line about studying to be a historian is a tip-of-the-hat to Peter Weller, who is a history professor at Syracuse University and has appeared in several documentaries on the History Channel. The character's affliction of Taggart's Syndrome is an in-joke, a reference to the television series Odyssey 5 (created by Star Trek: Enterprise 3rd- and 4th-season Executive Producer Manny Coto), in which Weller plays a character named Chuck Taggart. Seen on Paxton's desk is the oscillation overthruster, a device pivotal to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension, a favorite movie of Trek producers and FX creators, in which Weller played the title role. de:John Frederick Paxton Paxton, John Frederick